Fandom Documentaries Actually Help Hollywood

With any longstanding Hollywood blockbuster comes an equally robust fanbase. Withstanding the test of time, the 1984 Ghostbusters maintains a relatively large following, prompting a strong female-lead remake slated for summer 2016. After 30 years, fans continue to attend comic conventions dressed as the original characters. “Who you gonna call?!” still receives a resounding answer of “Ghostbusters!” Even from younger generations! In similar fashion, a fandom-based documentary appropriately titled Ghostheads is set to be released in conjunction with the new film. Documentaries like this, which showcase typical, everyday fans actually increases the visibility of not only the original film, but also Hollywood remakes.

Paul Feig’s Ghostheads is described as being “by the fans, about the fans.” Along the same lines, the 1997 Star Trek fan film, Trekkies set the precedent for what it means to truly be a fandom documentary. Trekkies was released in a time when Star Trek was still a relatively niche show. The concept of being a Trekkie became a huge phenomenon that still holds baring today at comic-cons across the country. And yet still, Trekkies introduced a large sector of the population to not only a television show, but also a genre they may have never discovered without it.

In some instances, fandom documentaries create a placeholder when official movie remakes are impossible. Although Back to the Future will never see a remake (according to Robert Zemeckis, “[A remake] can’t happen until both Bob and I are dead.”), fandom documentaries can continue to pump relevance into a stagnate series. As it currently stands, The Lego Movie already has A Lego Brickumentary. In the very near future, perhaps hugely popular film series like X-men and Harry Potter will see fandom documentaries as well.